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Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain
| publisher = | director = Denis Dyack | producer = Rick Goertz Lyle Hall Joshua Marks Mark Wallace Jeff Zwelling | designer = Seth Carus Armando Marini Ken McCulloch (lead designers) | programmer = Denis Dyack (lead programmer) | artist = Darren Cranford Kevin Gordon Ken McCulloch (lead artists) | writer = Denis Dyack (concept, story) Ken McCulloch (story, dialogue) | composer = Steve Henifin | series = Legacy of Kain | platforms = PlayStation, Microsoft Windows | released = PlayStation Microsoft Windows | genre = Action role-playing | modes = Single-player | media = CD-ROM }} Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, re-titled in Japan, is an action role-playing game developed by Silicon Knights and published by Crystal Dynamics, with distribution involvement from Activision and BMG Interactive. It was released for the PlayStation in 1996, and a Microsoft Windows port was developed by Semi Logic Entertainments and released by Activision in 1997. The game is the first title in the Legacy of Kain series. In Blood Omen, the player follows Kain, a newly-resurrected vampire. Seeking revenge against his murderers and a cure to his vampiric curse, Kain is tasked with traversing the fictional land of Nosgoth and slaughtering the Circle of Nine, a corrupt oligarchy of godlike sorcerers, but slowly begins to forsake humanity and view his transformation as a blessing. Silicon Knights designed Blood Omen as "a game which adults would want to play", intending to evolve the action role-playing genre and bring artistic cinema to video game consoles. Reviewers praised its scope and storytelling, but criticized its lengthy loading times. After its release, a dispute arose concerning ownership of its intellectual property rights, after which Crystal Dynamics retained permission to continue the series with their 1999 sequel, Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver. Gameplay on the right indicates Kain's current equipment, health and magic energy level.]] Blood Omen is a two-dimensional action role-playing game; the player controls the protagonist, Kain, from a top-down perspective. Gameplay is divided between outdoor traversal and dungeon crawls, entailing hack and slash combat, puzzle-solving, and evading traps. To advance the story, Kain must locate and defeat the members of the Circle of Nine—who act as boss enemies—and return their tokens to the Pillars of Nosgoth. Humans, animals and various fantasy creatures inhabit the game world, whom the player can typically elect to kill outright, or alternatively wound in order to feed on their blood. As a vampire, Kain is required to consume the red blood of living creatures to replenish his health meter, which gradually drains over time, and diminishes more quickly if he sustains damage. When he casts spells or shapeshifts, he expends magic energy—this recovers in time, and can be replenished by drinking the blue blood of ghostly enemies. Conversely, undead opponents relinquish harmful black blood, and demons and mutants yield green blood which poisons Kain, causing his health to deplete at a swifter rate. Over the course of the main quest, Kain acquires several items and abilities, which facilitate increasingly nonlinear exploration. As the player collects blood vials and rune pyramids, Kain's maximum blood and energy capacity rises. By drinking from blood fountains, he receives strength upgrades, faster magic regeneration and immunity to weather effects. Weapons include iron and fire-elemental swords, a spiked mace, twin axes, and the Soul Reaver, a two-handed flamberge. Suits of iron, bone, chaos, flesh, and wraith armor feature; each combination of equipment has advantages and drawbacks. Spells are used in both strategic and practical contexts—their functions ranging from summoning artificial light to mind control and the evocation of lightning storms—and shapeshifting enables Kain to assume the forms of a bat, allowing for immediate travel to checkpoints; a wolf, with enhanced speed and the capacity to jump; a cloud of mist, which enables him to pass through gates and cross water; or a human, with which he can covertly interact with, or bypass, certain non-player characters. There are 100 secrets present in the game, logged if the player uncovers hidden areas, switches and dungeons; these encompass spirit forges, at which Kain may donate a significant portion of his blood in exchange for powerful battle artifacts. A day and night cycle passes progressively—at night, Kain's attacks become more potent, and during full moon phases, some sealed doors become accessible. Plot Setting Blood Omen introduces the land of Nosgoth, a fantasy setting dominated by humans and vampires. The health of the world is inextricably connected to the nine Pillars of Nosgoth—supernatural edifices which are each protected and represented by a human guardian. Kain: Nupraptor, with his blind act of vengeance, threatened to destroy all of Nosgoth. Each Circle member was bonded to the Pillar he served. The Pillars reflected the mental state of their servants, and as the minds of the Circle degenerated and descended farther into dementia, the Pillars crumbled. To restore them, each member of the Circle had to die, and the artifact that served as their link to the Pillar had to be returned. Only when all the Pillars were restored, did Ariel claim my curse would end. And so my hunt for Nupraptor began. These sorcerers collectively comprise the Circle of Nine, and if a member dies, a successor guardian is summoned to take their place.Kain: The book spoke of the birth of the Circle. The Circle served the Pillars, protectorates to the strange power that gives life to our land. At the unlikely death of a member, the Circle remains broken for a time, until the Pillars can cull a worthy successor. I came upon another book of interest buried deep amongst the library's tomes. It spoke of a small cult that existed in Nosgoth, ages past. Wherever they traveled strange tales of human possession would follow. Little is known of the god they worshiped. Hundreds of years prior to the events of the story, the Circle formed and sponsored the Sarafan, an order of monastic warriors devoted to eradicating the vampire race, and in the game's prologue, the vampire Vorador reacts vengefully by killing six of the guardians and defeating Malek, the Sarafan leader. Though the Sarafan disband, vampires continue to be persecuted.Kain: Hidden amidst the many obscure artifacts in that museum, I discovered an ancient chronicle. This passage caught my eye: "It was during these dark times infested with the plague of the undead, that the Circle brought the Sarafan to existence. Trained to be devoutly loyal to the Circle, and the perfect exterminators of the undead scourge, they were led to many victories by the righteous paladin, Malek. They cleansed the vampires with fire, and released their souls to more blessed realms. There is no wrath as terrible as that of the righteous." I had read enough. At once disgusted and intrigued, I placed the book back down in that museum. Vorador: After slaughtering six of the sheep I defeated their pathetic little shepherd – Malek. Since then our kind has not bothered with the cattle, except to feed. And I suggest you do the same. Meddling with the affairs of man can do us no good. Sarafan witchhunts are much too tedious to concern ourselves with. Am I understood Kain? In the intervening years, new guardians have been born, Nosgoth's surviving vampires have retreated into hiding, and humanity has separated into two opposing factions: the kingdom of Willendorf, inspired by Arthurian legend, and the Legions of the Nemesis, an all-conquering army determined to bring an end to civilization.Ariel: The Legions of the Nemesis are on the march from the north, crushing all in their path. 'Twas not too long ago that the Nemesis was known as William the Just, a caring and gentle benefactor of the land. But, as his army grew in strength and he himself grew in power, the veil of tyranny fell and one kingdom was not enough. So many cities, so many dead. Willendorf will be sure to follow. The Nemesis must be stopped or all shall be lost... / Kain: How can one stop an army? / Ariel: You must rally the forces of Willendorf; they are the last Hope of Nosgoth. When the guardian of balance, Ariel, dies at the hands of a mysterious, malevolent entity, her lover Nupraptor turns his powers against his fellow Circle members, tainting the incumbent guardians with irrevocable madness and leaving the Pillars corrupt.Kain: I came upon one of Nupraptor's serving girls, catatonic with fear, choking out half-words through bloodied, broken teeth. Although tempted by hunger, I stayed my hand, allowing her to tell her story... She spoke of her Lord Nupraptor, driven to insanity by the brutal slaying of his beloved Ariel. She spoke of his self-mutilation, sewing his eyes and lips shut to deny the outside world. Fueled by despair and hopelessness, he turned his magic on the Circle, infecting their minds with his madness. Nupraptor cared for nothing now, save his pathetic self-pity. Scars such as hers would never heal. Death would only be a mercy. To restore balance to Nosgoth, Kain must overcome the Nemesis armies and kill the insane sorcerers; as each Circle member is purged and their token returned, their respective Pillar is cleansed, and when he heals all nine Pillars, replacement guardians can be culled. Characters Kain (voiced by Simon Templeman), an ambitious, cynical young nobleman murdered and reluctantly raised as a vampire, is the protagonist of Blood Omen. Conceived as an antihero whose nature reflects the story's moral ambiguity, Kain was partially modeled on the character of William Munny from the 1992 Clint Eastwood film, Unforgiven. Mortanius the Necromancer (Tony Jay), an ancient wizard, resurrects Kain in a Faustian bargain, and serves as his enigmatic benefactor throughout the game. The reclusive and decadent vampire Vorador (Paul Lukather) acts as a mentor and father figure to Kain, encouraging him to accept his vampirism, whereas the specter of the deceased balance guardian, Ariel (Anna Gunn), directs Kain in his quest to restore the land. The corrupt guardians—such as Moebius the Time Streamer (Richard Doyle), a devious manipulator of history inspired by Adolf Hitler, and the wraith of Malek the Paladin (Neil Ross), condemned to protect the Circle eternally following his defeat against Vorador—feature as the story's antagonists. Other major characters include King Ottmar (Ross), the ruler of Willendorf; William the Just/The Nemesis (Jay), a once-benign monarch turned despot and tyrant; and The Dark Entity (Jay), an otherworldly being capable of demonic possession who seeks to topple the Circle and the Pillars. Story During a journey, the nobleman Kain is ambushed, and fatally impaled, by a band of attackers. Mortanius offers him the chance to exact his revenge; Kain accepts, heedless of the cost, and awakes as a vampire.Kain: Vae Victus – suffering to the conquered. Ironic that now I was the one suffering. Not anything as pedestrian as physical pain. Rather the cruel jab of impotent anger – the hunger for revenge. I didn't care if I was in Heaven or Hell – all I wanted was to kill my assassins. Sometimes you get what you wish for. The Necromancer Mortanius offered me a chance for vengeance. And like a fool, I jumped at his offer without considering the cost. Nothing is free. Not even revenge. Once he kills his assassins, Mortanius tells him that, while they were the instruments of his death, they were not the ultimate cause. In search of the truth, and a cure to his vampiric curse, Kain travels to the Pillars of Nosgoth.Mortanius: 'Tis not over, Kain. These fools were merely the instruments of your murder, not the cause. Look to their masters. Look to the Pillars and gain way to the Fortress of the Mind... There, Ariel explains that he has to destroy the Circle of Nine before he can realize peace.Ariel: There is no cure for death. Only release. You must destroy the sorcery that is now poisoning Nosgoth. Only then will you realize peace. The Nine of the Protectors of Hope were sworn to use their powers to preserve our world. Now these pillars have been corrupted by a traitor. Kain begins by tracking down and killing Nupraptor the Mentalist, and then confronts Malek, but their duel ends in a stalemate. To defeat Malek, Kain solicits the Oracle of Nosgoth for advice.Kain: Nupraptor was but the genesis – forever tainted by his madness, the Circle was beyond redemption. For them absolution lay only in death. In me, they would find their deliverance. But first I had to defeat their shepherd – Malek, defender of the Nine, lay in a keep far to the north, past Vasserbünde. It was time for me to test the wrath of the Pillar of Conflict. Ariel: Ah, the lord returns empty-handed. Does the Sarafan elude you? Very well, go east of Malek's Bastion. The Oracle shall give you aid. The Oracle forewarns him of the Legions of the Nemesis, and instructs him to seek out Vorador, Malek's old adversary. When the two meet, Vorador welcomes Kain, and offers his assistance, but urges the fledgling to embrace vampirism and refrain from interfering in the affairs of mankind. Haunted by the elder vampire, who serves as an example of what he will become if he fails to find a cure, Kain persists, and, in a decisive showdown, he summons Vorador to vanquish Malek before killing Bane the Druid and DeJoule the Energist.Kain: My visit with Vorador only strengthened my resolve. His power uncontested by mortals, he had fallen to another enemy. Decadence has claimed itself many a great warrior. Later, after he slays Azimuth the Planer and recovers a time-streaming device, Ariel informs Kain that he must instead prioritize the war against the Nemesis, whose armies threaten to conquer Willendorf.Ariel: Well done. You have found Moebius's toy. Azimuth, not content with summoning demonic thrall, stole the Time Streaming Device in order to gather creatures from other ages as well. Take care of the device, Kain. It will deliver you in time. Kain convinces King Ottmar to rally his troops against the Legions in a final stand, but the battle proves disastrous; Ottmar perishes, the Willendorf forces are overwhelmed, and Kain—cornered—uses the time-streaming device to escape.Kain: I entered the Court with the Dollmaker's head in one hand, and the doll containing the girl's soul in the other. I placed them both before the King and watched his eyes catch fire. With the doll in their possession, the Court's sorcerers could restore his daughter's soul. / Ottmar: I do not know that I can thank you enough, warrior. My kingdom is but a small price to pay for my daughter's life. Willendorf is yours, if you wish it! / Kain: 'Tis not your kingdom I desire, but your army, Ottmar. I require troops to vanquish the Horde that descends upon us from the North. / Ottmar: Very well. Courtiers, fetch me my armor and mace. There is war to be waged! Ottmar: The Nemesis and his Horde fall upon us, my friend. I fear I can defend Nosgoth no longer. The Nemesis must be destroyed. For my daughter, Kain; for the world... / Kain: The tide turned with Ottmar's death. I watched as the remaining survivors of the Armies of Hope fled to the safety of the forest. The battle had decided its victor; the fate of Nosgoth now lay in the Nemesis' hands. He emerges 50 years in the past, and kills the younger version of the Nemesis from this era—the beloved King William the Just—to trigger a temporal paradox which will expunge the Legions from the timestream.Kain: Ah, so it seemed I was in the land of William the Just, fifty years before the battle I had just escaped would take place. Kain: The stronghold of William the Just. 'Twas time for me to pay a visit to he who would become the Nemesis and force Nosgoth on its knees. However, when Kain returns to the present day, he discovers that William's murder has sparked a renewed vampire purge.Kain: 'Twould seem the folly fell upon my own shoulders. With their sainted King William dead by my hand, the people of the land were consumed by a hunger all their own – for vampire blood. The Oracle of Nosgoth—revealed to be Moebius the Time Streamer, a member of the Circle—leads the genocidal crusade, and, having masterminded Kain's actions from the outset, consummates his trap by executing Vorador. Kain kills Moebius, but is left the last of his kind.Kain: I had been betrayed. In my haste, I had not realized it before. That sigil on his forehead. The Oracle of Nosgoth was in fact the Time Streamer Moebius. And I had followed his advice! How much of my quest was of his design? Willendorf? The Battle of the Last Stand? William the Just? Was this the trap he had fashioned for me? Kain: Thirty years hence, I am presented with a dilemma – let's call it a two-sided coin. If the coin falls one way, I sacrifice myself and thus restore the Pillars. But as the last surviving vampire in Nosgoth, this would mean the annihilation of our species. Moebius made sure of that. If the coin lands on the reverse, I refuse the sacrifice and thus doom the Pillars to an eternity of collapse. Either way, the game is rigged. At the Pillars, he witnesses Mortanius arguing with Anarcrothe the Alchemist, who reveals that Mortanius is a guardian, and culpable for both Ariel's and Kain's murders.Anarcrothe: You betrayed us Mortanius! You had Kain killed and turned him into a monster. You set him upon us! / Mortanius: It had to be. Nupraptor's insanity poisoned all of our minds. The Circle had failed in its sworn duties. It had to be destroyed. Seduced by The Dark Entity, he was unwillingly possessed and forced to kill Ariel. To correct the imbalance, he had Kain assassinated and resurrected as a creature potent enough to destroy the Circle. Mortanius slays Anarcrothe, and then succumbs to The Dark Entity, whom Kain defeats. With only one Pillar left unrestored, he reaches an epiphany: he himself is the final insane Circle member, Ariel's unwitting successor as guardian of balance, culled in the brief interval between her death and the Pillars' corruption. The "cure" to vampirism which he sought is his own death.Kain: I am the last Pillar. The only survivor of the Circle of Nine. At my whim the world will be healed or damned. At my whim. Kain: As Ariel dies, I am being born to take her place as Balance Guardian. Such is my destiny. / Raziel: ...my god... / Kain: At the moment of my first cry, Ariel's beloved – the Guardian Nupraptor – finds her corpse. Wracked with grief and tormented by suspicions of treachery, Nupraptor plunges into a madness which overflows and infects all of the Guardians, who are symbiotically bound. Including me. The repercussions of Ariel's assassination were expertly calculated... The entire Circle descends into madness, and I am tainted at the moment of my birth – instantly rendered incapable of fulfilling the role destiny has prepared for me. Players can choose whether to heal the world—an ending in which Kain sacrifices his life, and ensures the extinction of the vampires, to restore Nosgoth—or damn the world, in which case the Pillars collapse, leaving Nosgoth an irredeemable wasteland, with Kain fully embracing his curse and living on as the most powerful entity in the land.Ariel: In his life he was unknown. A petty noble. In death he was unknown. Yet by choosing oblivion he restored Balance to the land. Shades cast no shadows. Kain: Once I embraced my powers I realized that Vorador was correct. We are Gods – dark gods – and it is our duty to thin the herd. Development The concept of Blood Omen was conceived by Silicon Knights president Denis Dyack, and was first considered for production under the working title The Pillars of Nosgoth in 1993. Silicon Knights attempted to create a strongly cerebral action role-playing game "where you had to use your head as well as your reflexes". The creative team focused on developing a cinematic and immersive storyline, narrative and atmosphere in an attempt to evolve the genre. Actual technical production was delayed in the absence of a suitable console; for approximately eight months, Silicon Knights worked on game design without a designated hardware platform. In 1993, fellow game development studio Crystal Dynamics agreed to publish the game, with an extended development period requiring Silicon Knights to double staff levels and Crystal Dynamics contributing several employees. The game was released for the PlayStation in late 1996 "after herculean efforts", and ported to personal computers in 1997. Work on a Sega Saturn version was also commenced after the initial release, but was eventually terminated. In developing the character of Kain, Silicon Knights deliberately veered away from following the monomyth despite being advised that a brooding anti-hero would not appeal to gamers. Silicon Knights adopted the vision of a character whom everyone believes is evil, partially inspired by William Munny, the protagonist of Clint Eastwood's Unforgiven, as opposed to a stereotypical "totally kick-ass" protagonist. The world of Nosgoth was created by using a combination of high fantasy and vampire mythology as a template. Influenced by the Necroscope and The Wheel of Time series, the creative team attempted to ensure no character fell into a simple "good" or "evil" typecast. Cover art for The Pillars of the Earth served as inspiration for the Pillars of Nosgoth themselves. Content director Ken McCulloch, who co-wrote the storyline and the majority of in-game texts, was urged by marketers to use more accessible names late in the design process, with Mortanius and Hash'ak'gik considered "Names from Hell" that were difficult to get past the "marketing censor". Simon Templeman provided the voice of Kain, and prior to recording Dyack expressed concern that the actors would be unable to convey McCulloch's complex dialog. Dyack, however, stated their performances "blew him away", and commented that "after five minutes with Simon Templeman ... we knew that there was no problem." Reception |1UP = A |IGN = 8.5/10 |GSpot = 7.1/10 |PCGUS = 80 out of 100 |rev1 = The Adrenaline Vault |rev1Score = |rev2 = Game Revolution |rev2Score = B+ |rev3=''Next Generation'' |rev3Score= }} Commercially, Blood Omen performed "remarkably well", and was considered an "immensely successful" project by Crystal Dynamics' standards, selling over 700,000 copies on its debut. Review aggregator site GameRankings assigned the PlayStation version of the game a rating of 83.25%. Jeff Gerstmann of GameSpot appreciated its graphics, audio and challenging gameplay, but criticized its overhead perspective, and gave it a score of 7.1. Baldric of Game Revolution praised its "surprisingly amoral" themes, regarding it as "intelligent, thoughtful, brutal, and just a bit evil". Sequel References Category:1996 video games Category:Action role-playing video games Category:Cancelled Sega Saturn games Category:Dark fantasy video games Category:Legacy of Kain Category:PlayStation games Category:PlayStation Network games Category:Silicon Knights games Category:Windows games